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Monday, 9 December 2013

Indian Army Chief
Gen Bikram Singh and top US military leadership have discussed ways to enhance
bilateral defence ties through joint training exercises and military exchanges
to advance India's military interests.

Singh visited
important US defence establishments and met a number of high-ranking defence
and civilian officials here during his four-day trip that ended on December 5.

Singh and US Army
Chief of Staff Gen Ray Odierno discussed the ongoing army-to-army cooperation
and opportunities to further strengthen bilateral cooperation through joint
training exercises and military exchanges.

General Singh also
utilised the opportunity to discuss the US-India defence relationship with
other senior US military leadership and advance India's military interests,
according to an official statement.

Before his trip,
the Indian Army had said that the visit assumes special significance in the
light of enhanced defence cooperation between the two countries over the last
few years and rapidly increasing defence engagements under the new framework
for India-US defence relations.

Noting that
present cooperation between the two sides was on a rise, the Army had said it
"encompasses equipment procurement, exchange of delegations, training and
conduct of joint exercises. It is notable the US undertakes maximum number of
joint exercises with India among all nations."

Singh was inducted
into US Army War College International (UAWSC) Fellows Hall of Fame, an
outstanding honour in the international military community. Singh, an alumnus
of the USAWC, delivered a keynote speech to its class of 2013-2014.

LUCKNOW: Former
Army chief, General Shankar Roy Chowdhary said we need more writers in
vernacular language for military writing even though English has become de
facto Indian language.

He was in the city
for a session on Military Writing in India with Lt Gen P C Katoch, Maj Gen Ravi
Arora and Maj Gen G D Bakshi at the Lucknow Literature Carnival.

The officer, who
was Army chief from 1994-1997, said "India has history of armed struggle,
the fight for Independence being the biggest case in point but politicians have
not acknowledged this fact, hence not many publishers show much interest in
military writing."

He added that
books like 'I Hanuman' and 'Singh's Choice' which gave accurate account of the
act of valour of Indian soldiers were written and published by foreign
entities.

According to Maj
Gen Ravi Arora, "Military Headquarter is now giving clearance to books by
service men but Ministry of Defence still discourages this practice." He
said another problem with military writing is that publishers want
controversial writing to make it sell.

Maj Gen G D Bakshi
conveyed "a need to eulogise modern military heroes to teach ethics and
values to young growing children". He mooted the idea of Indian war
comics, which was endorsed by Anupam Sinha, creator of comics like 'Commando
Dhruv', in a workshop on writing cartoons.

He said, graphics
novel or comics are another form of communication between text and films which
are easy to grasp but have strong impact.

Later, in the
afternoon session, a panel discussion, 'Aanchal Se Parcham Tak': Women in writing',
was held in which panelists R R Verma, Noor Zaheer and Salim Arif traced
contribution of eminent women writers like Qurratulain Hyder and many others.

The Election
Commission of India has asked political parties to desist from displaying
photographs of Defence personnel in election propaganda, in advertisements,
posters or otherwise.

This comes after
the Madhya Pradesh Congress complained to President of India, Ministry of
Defence and Election Commission that the BJP used photographs of Army Chief
Bikram Singh in a poll-related advertisement, sources said. The advisory came
on December 4 when the last of the recent Assembly polls in five states was
being held in Delhi. With results in four states, including Madhya Pradesh, out
on Sunday, the advisory would be for elections to be held next, including the
Lok Sabha polls in a few months.

The Commission
sent the advisory to all recognised parties after the Ministry of Defence
brought it to its notice that photographs of Defence personnel were used by
political parties in poll advertisements.

The Ministry
requested the Commission to issue suitable instructions. The advisory asked
political parties to issue instructions to candidates, leaders and cadres to
ensure compliance.

In the letter to
political parties, EC principal secretary K Ajay Kumar stated that Armed Forces
are guardians of the nation's frontiers, security and polity and are
collectively apolitical and neutral stakeholders in a democracy.

"It is,
therefore, necessary that political parties and leaders exercise caution while
making references to Armed forces in political campaigns," stated Kumar's
letter, which added that the Commission was of the view that photographs of
functions of Chief of Army Staff or other defence personnel and functions of
Defence forces should not be associated with or used in any manner in
advertisements and campaigns.

The Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, in its reports on defence land, has
exposed serious irregularities in the functioning of the authorities. The
reports of the PAC, which has examined the findings of the Comptroller and
Auditor General of India, are likely to be tabled in Parliament next week.

In its report on Defence Estate Management,
the PAC—empowered to audit the expenditure of the government—is said to have
indicted the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for misuse of defence land for golf
courses, offering membership to civilians charging huge sums which are not even
credited to the government account. Sources said 16 golf courses under the
Army’s control are offering membership to civilians and in some cases even to
foreign diplomats. Of 97 golf courses under the Army, it is learnt that records
of 18 were not even produced for audit and before the parliamentary panel for
scrutiny.

“Most of such golf courses are
using Army’s land and infrastructure but registered as private societies to
escape the scrutiny of audit. They are not paying any lease rent or charges for
using government assets. This irked PAC which has asked the MoD to submit a
status report about all golf courses and membership amount collected by the
regiment concerned,” a source said.

The PAC is understood to have told MoD that
golf is not an authorised activity as per the rules under accommodation for
defence services. Citing the cantonment land administration rules, 1937, the
PAC has observed that recreation grounds cannot be used for golf courses and
recommended revisiting of the entire policy of golf courses for strict action.

The panel, sources said, was
shocked to find that over 14,000 acres of defence land was encroached upon by
civilians. The PAC has slammed defence estate officers for not monitoring and
investigating the encroachments.

“Involvement of multiple authorities seems to
be the main problem for lack of coordination. The PAC is learnt to have
recommended setting up of a single unified authority for management and protection
of defence land and to recover encroached lands,” sources said.

It is learnt that the
parliamentary panel has also raised concerns over negligible amount received in
return for vast tract of defence land leased by defence estate management. A
total of 2,500 acres of defence land worth over Rs 11,000 crore was leased for
only Rs 2.13 crore which has surprised the panel. The PAC has also noticed that
there were no efforts made to renew over 3,700 cases of lease and status of
lease was not even known in over 1,000 cases. Sources said the MoD had informed
the panel that a comprehensive policy is being formulated to look into the
matter.

“The parliamentary panel has
asked the government to bring the new policy in force in the next six months,”
sources said.